Sony XBR9 as my monitor?

[illegalprelude]

Hey guys and gals.

Im looking to pull the trigger on a Mac Pro sometime in the future as my current G5 and 17" Cinema Display are just not cutting it anymore.

With that said, I was trying to knock to birds with one stone as im going to be getting another PS3 for the bedroom. This made me think, the MacPro can easily support 1080p resolution, so why not a XBR9 for both my monitor (going DVI to HDMI) and then plugging in my PS3 and Tivo both via HDMI as well.

So my question is, would the XBR9 and Mac Pro play nice? As in, would OSX look nice on a TV? I know monitors (not mine but newer ones) have a resolution higher then 1080p but I mean hell, im not hitting that high and things look fine, plus, I have nothing that really needs higher then that resolution.

So thoughts and comments are all appreciated.

 

[Makosuke]

It'll certainly work fine--I occasionally use my Sharp TV as a monitor on the occasions when I use my HTPC/server mini as an actual computer. Looks nice, works smoothly so long as you have the inputs configured properly. Some TVs will even sleep when the input goes down, like a regular monitor.

That said, it may be awkward, and depending on your color demands also a mistake. The latter is because TVs are tuned to be TVs--not necessarily for accurate color reproduction (the contrast is usually drastically higher than on a monitor, not necessarily a good thing). Of course, with a fancy XBR maybe that's not the case, and if you don't do anything color-sensitive, it probably won't be an issue at all.

The other issue is getting yourself into the right location to use it; due to the relatively low pixel density of the screen, you're going to have to sit somewhere in a particular zone to get between the point where the words are too small to read and where you're so close you're straining your eyes and neck scanning around the screen.

In my case, for example, the couch is too far away to comfortably use the screen as a computer monitor, but if I move closer there's nowhere to sit but the floor, so my neck gets strained looking up at the screen. And if I tried to use it at "regular" monitor distances it would seem horribly blurry and would kill my neck looking up and down to cover the screen area.

Might not be an issue with your room layout, but something to consider. I'm assuming that you're using wireless peripherals, but that also requires having a desk or something to set the keyboard and mouse on when you're at "computing" distance, which may or may not be the same as where you sit to watch TV.

If you currently have an HDTV of any sort it'd be easy enough to test out with your current computer and see if it's comfortable.

 

[illegalprelude]

thanks for the great reply Makosuke. In terms of the sitting distance, that shouldnt be a problem sense it will be mounded and ill be atleast 5ft back.

My concern has been color and everything and just if it "looks" right. As you said, the contrast and color ratio.

Over all, im using everyday programs. iPhoto, iWork and such. Not really doing much with my FC or anything so im really not worried about that what so ever. If everyday programs look good, im more then convinced.

I do have an HDTV to test with but its a Sony SXRD and that was a Rear Project LCD and those are built very differently then an LCD so I figure there is no real answer ill get from plugging into that. Plus, my mac can only currently output or atleast my display might be limited to 1280 x 1024.